Gets to grips with Milan, international mecca of fashion and shopping - visits its awesome art collections and world-famous La Scala opera house - reveals idylls along the shores of the famous Italian Lakes - winds through the Renaissance cities of the Lombard plain, such as Cremona, where the world's violins are made - seeks out the spectacular 1000ft waterfalls of Cascata della Frua 'Throughout history, the millions of frostbitten travellers, pilgrims, conquering armies, future popes and pushy emperors who lumbered over the treacherous passes of the Alps would be stopped in their tracks by a vision as powerful, terrible and beautiful as an epiphany: at their feet, wedged into the flanks of the snowcapped mountains, lay the Garden of Eden itself. Elegant, long lakes were its centrepiece, warmed by a glowing sun that had nothing in common with that old cheese in the sky they knew back home.'